Here’s a very special Christmas Playlist treat straight from DJ Tone. Once upon a time there was a little club called CBGB’s OMFUG which was owned and operated by Hilly Kristal. He developed a home where a legacy of bands that defined NYC’s underground music from The Ramones, Blondie to the The Patti Smith Group could perform. Every month these wayard punks that defined an era of music get together once a month. Punks in Exile from that little club with the amazing sound system. I was lucky to play the stage myself at least a dozen times and be a witness to later era bands who graced the stage from Jesus Lizard, Sonic Youth and Bongwater to name a few. The was a iconic cultural destination. I swear everytime I walked by the place there were always tourists taking photos in front. I’d say they enjoyed quite the walk-in crowd. Anyway, here’s a playlist from our own DJ Tone who made this holiday mix called “Carols Buddies Goodfortune Bounty and Much Joy to celebrate the Holiday Season in EXILE at Bowery Electric this past week. We’re 99% certain that all the bands on this playlist played CB’s or at least in Shane Macgowan’s case he at least had a drink there.

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North East rock was never so eloquently defined than by the alternative music vehicle known as Big Dipper. I meant this to be a follow-up post on the music from City Gardens Riot on the Dance Floor post but needless to say when a group makes a melodic dent like these guys did it’s worth one of my retro-posts because a lot of the submissions I’m getting just don’t rank. This is though one of those bands I trekked down to Trenton to see opening up I think for Robyn Hitchcock. Way back when my friend A.Rockman went to Lehigh, I used to go visit him weekend night’s he’d have a late night shift on 91.3 FM WLVR. This is where I first heard Dumbtruck which featured guys from Big Dipper too. This is the independent “college rock” I remember best. Spinning their first EP Boo Boo was a ear explosion of melody and rough guitars minus the delay pedal present in bands like Echo & The Bunnymen with the same sing-song sense. The follow-up Heavens delivered even more of the same jangle rock. Straight-up songs that fit nicely with The Smithereens, The Feelies and the more melodic tunes by Hüsker Dü on my mix tapes. While short lived in their 7 year history it was awesome to see them play on the Heavens tour as I remember them being one of the tallest bands in world who seemed almost cramped up against the low ceiling on the City Gardens stage. Check out their Anthology out now on Merge!